Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus looking ahead to 2015

He has been Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief for all 13 of his full-time seasons in NASCAR’s premier series.

He has been at the helm of Johnson’s six Cup series championships, including a NASCAR-record five in a row between 2006 and 2010.

He also has found himself at odds with NASCAR inspectors from time to time.

As a whole, Chad Knaus has established himself as one of the hardest-working, innovative and successful crew chiefs in NASCAR history. And he isn’t done.

Oh, there has been talk Knaus might be ready leave Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 team after this season, especially as sniping over the team radio between Knaus and Johnson became more frequent.

Despite being eliminated from title contention, Johnson’s dominating performance in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway served as a reminder – perhaps even to the driver and crew chief – they likely are to remain championship contenders for the foreseeable future.

“I’m set. I don't foresee a change with the No. 48 car from a driver or crew chief standpoint in the near future,” Knaus said. “I don't foresee (a change) happening.

“If it does, I’ll have to be a reporter because I don’t know what the (heck) I’m going to do after that.”

While four wins and a berth in the 16-driver Chase hardly seems like a down year, there were periods this season during which the team seemed to struggle. The results were more haphazard than usual – a fact not lost on Johnson or Knaus.

“I hate losing more than I enjoy winning. Obviously going through this stretch has been difficult,” Knaus said. “We’ve looked for answers. Haven’t found them.

“We’ve lifted every stone to try to figure out how to get the No. 48 car to run a little bit better throughout the course of the season. I think we got blinded a little bit by our own just misguidance.”

A recent test at Homestead, Fla., seemed to help cure some of the team’s ills. With Johnson eliminated from title contention, he and Knaus got a chance to get a head start on working on NASCAR’s new rules package for 2015.

“We went there with a different and open mindset because we showed up with the 2015 package,” Knaus said. “We began to develop our own theories and our own solutions to the problems that we had.”

Some of what the team learned it was able to apply to last weekend’s race at Texas, which turned out to be a rousing success.

More work remains.

“My confidence was definitely low. I know Jimmie’s was definitely low. You know, look, winning cures a lot of things, but the proof is in how we react beyond this point,” Knaus said.

“It’s about how we go to Phoenix, how we produce there, how we go to Homestead, how we race there. Those will be the true tales of where we’re at.”

And where they will be to start the 2015 season.

This story was originally published November 6, 2014 at 6:00 PM.